Singaporean Dropout Pleads Guilty to $240 Million Bitcoin Heist
A 22-year-old man has pleaded guilty to orchestrating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in U.S. history, netting over $240 million in Bitcoin from a Washington D.C. resident.
Malone Lam, an eighth-grade dropout who came to the U.S. from Singapore, faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge.
Lam was part of a network of young men who carried out a string of crypto scams starting in 2023. He and his co-conspirators used 'social engineering' techniques to dupe the victim into giving them access to his Google Drive, allowing Lam to siphon off over 4,100 Bitcoin.
The stolen funds were laundered and used by Lam to buy a fleet of sports cars, rent mansions in Miami, and spend millions at nightclubs. He even purchased a $2 million watch and spent $569,000 in one evening at a Los Angeles club.